Phases of Counseling

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1. Phases of Counseling Joanne L. Verola BEED- Special Education

2. What is a Counseling Process?

3. A Counseling Process is a planned, structured dialogue between a counselor and a client. It is a cooperative process in which a trained professional helps a person called the client to identify sources of difficulties or concerns that he or she is experiencing. Together they develop ways to deal with and overcome these problems so that person has new skills and increased understanding of themselves and others.

4. For example students in a college or university may be anxious about how to study in university, lack of clarity on educational or career direction, have difficulty living with a room-mate of another race or religion, have concerns with self-esteem, feelings with being “stressed out”, difficulties in romantic relationships and so forth.

5. Stage 1: Establishing Relationship

6. The first step involves building a relationship and focuses on engaging clients to explore issues that directly affect them. It is where the client is reading the verbal and nonverbal messages and make inferences about the counselor and the counseling situation. Research efforts on counseling relationships can be grouped into two general categories: counselor-offered conditions and counselor- and client-offered conditions.

7. Counselor-offered conditions The way the counselor influences the counseling process - Rogers (1957) identified what he believed were core conditions for success in counseling: empathy , unconditional positive regard , congruence , respect , immediacy , confrontation , concreteness , self-disclosure .

8. Counselor and client offered conditions Working alliance: another way to describe the counseling relationship. According to Bordin (1979) a working alliance is composed of three parts agreement between the counselor and client in terms of the goals of counseling, agreement between the counselor and client in terms of the tasks of counseling, and the emotional bond between the counselor and client

9. Steps for Relationship Building Introduce yourself Invite client to sit down Ensure client is comfortable Address the client by name Invite social conversation to reduce anxiety Watch for nonverbal behavior as signs of client’s emotional state Invite client to describe his or her reason for coming to talk Allow client time to respond Indicate that you are interested in the person

10. Stage 2: Assessment and Diagnosis

11. Assessment : helps counselors develop an in-depth understanding of a client and mental disorders that require attention Diagnosis : medical term that means "identification of the disease-causing pathogens responsible for a physical illness"

12. Assessment Division Standardized measures include psychological tests that have a standardized norm group. Nonstandardized measures do not have a standardized norm group and include strategies such as the clinical interview and assessment of life history.

13. Diagnosis: DSM-IV TR based Axis I Clinical Disorders and Other Conditions That May Be a Focus of Clinical Attention Axis II Personality Disorders Mental Retardation Axis III General Medical Conditions Axis IV Psychosocial and Environmental Problems Axis V Global Assessment of Functioning

14. Four reasons for making a diagnosis 1. Facilitating communication shorthand 2. Indicating possible treatment strategies 3. Communicating etiology 4. Aiding in scientific investigation

15. Stage 3: Setting Goals

16. Goals serve three functions in the counseling process (Cormier & Hackney, 1993): m otivational educational e valuative C ounseling goals also conceptualizes as either process or outcome goals.

17. Process goals Establish the conditions necessary to make  the counseling process work Are primarily the counselor's responsibility Outcome goals Specify what the client hopes to accomplish in counseling.

18. Stage 4: Intervention and Problem Solving

19. Once goals between counselor and client are created, they can determine the intervention strategy (include group counseling, family, couple and mostly individual) One way to conceptualize intervention is practicing problem solving.

20. Problem-solving strategies Kanfer and Busemeyer's six-stage model : problem detection, problem definition, identification of alternative solutions, decision making, execution, and verification

21. Stage 5: Evaluation, Termination, Follow up or Referral

22. The ultimate goals in counseling is for counselors to be unnecessary or obsolete to the client (at this point counseling can be terminated). Once the termination has occurred, counselors can set up a brief follow up counseling session.

23. For the beginning counselor, it is difficult to think of terminating the counseling process, as they are more concerned with beginning the counseling process. However , all counseling aims toward successful termination. Terminating the counseling process will have to be conducted with sensitivity with the client knowing that it will have to end.

24. Counselor always mindful of avoiding fostering dependency and is aware of own needs. Preparation for termination begins long before counseling begins. Termination considered not just at end of successful relationship, but also is considered when it seems counseling is not being helpful. Think of this as a means of empowering client.

25. For you, what is the most important phase/stage in a counseling process?

26. Do you think implementing school counseling program is important?

27. Students trained by counselors to be peer facilitators are effective in helping sixth grade problem-behavior students adjust to middle school. In one study, counselors worked with eighth grade peer facilitators once a week for six weeks, focusing on how to (a) establish a helping relationship, (b) use high facilitative responses, (c) lead a small group discussion, and (d) use a four-step problem-solving model. The facilitators demonstrated that they could help students who are having problems adjusting to school, especially in terms of their school attendance, school grades, and attitude towards school. Discipline referrals were also reduced . Tobias and Myrick , 1999 Professional School Counseling , 3:1, 27-33.

28. One study found that high school counselors influenced their students' future plans by encouraging them to have high expectations. A high proportion of 10th and 12th grade students who were surveyed perceived that their counselor expected them to attend college, regardless of their racial background. High school students’ own educational expectations for themselves increased over time . Mau and Hitchcock , 1998 Professional School Counseling , 2:2, 161-166.

29. A study done in Gwinnett County, Georgia shows that school counselors impact students’ academic performance and can increase the on-task, productive behavior of students and reduce disruptive behaviors. The Behavior Rating Checklist indicated statistically significant decreases in disruptive behaviors and significant increases in productive, on-task behaviors for both the third grade and the fifth grade students tested. Language arts progress was statistically significant for both grade levels as well . Mullis and Otwell , 1997 Georgia School Counselors Association Journal , 1:4, 1-3.

30. Counseling decreases classroom disturbances. Counseling services support teachers in the classroom and enable teachers to provide quality instruction designed to assist students in achieving high standards. Students in schools that provide counseling services indicated that their classes were less likely to be interrupted by other students and that their peers behaved better in school . Lapan and Gysbers , 1997 Journal of Counseling & Development , 75, 292-302. 

31. Thank You!   